The Genesis of Delusions and Hallucinations in Systematised Delusional Insanity [De la genèse des conceptions délirantes et des hallucinations dans le délire Systématisé]. (Gaz. des Hôp., No. 64, 1900.) Montyel, M. de

Abstract

The author supports the views (recently expressed) of Vigouroux and Decasse on the evolution of delusional insanity. Cenæsthesia is the capital factor; a diseased emotional tone constitutes the delusional state; the intellectual interpretation is secondary; it defines it, consolidates it, but does not constitute it. The altered personality is then apparent. The auditory hallucinations, constant in this disease, are prepared, excited by the delusional state, and they are an effect, not a cause. In 1888, already most of these points were urged by him before the Société Médico-Psychologique. In one important particular de Montyel holds a different opinion; while Vigouroux and Decasse look upon systematised delusional insanity as a new condition, and consider that the patient before his illness was normal, de Montyel holds that the disease is but the development of the former character of the patient, the complete unfolding of a mental state dating from birth.